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In retrospect, GE's move into finance with GE Capital, while contributing heavily to the bottom line, ruined GE. I get that Apple has a lot of money that needs

In retrospect, GE's move into finance with GE Capital, while contributing heavily to the bottom line, ruined GE. I get that Apple has a lot of money that needs managing, and I'll probably sign up for this myself, but I do fear it's a harbinger of wrong focus and disaster decades from now.

kshacker 4y ago
I am not sure it is a correct comparison. Wallets are here to stay so if you are anyways investing in wallets and payments, how much more work is banking? Especially if it is being done by someone else (Goldman Sachs)and if Apple is looking at only technical aspects of the platform. Edit: sometimes you can get only so much (very little) insight into a business unless you run it, at least a small version of it. I have no opinion on them running a savings bank but it will be really interesting if they ever brought something challenging visa and Mastercard. Not sure if that will ever happen it will be interesting to speculate what if because that market adds on quite a bit to so many small businesses operational cost. You buy from Costco, sell at store, basically finance has added 6% cost there (recoverable with rewards but not for everyone) and if someone can reduce it to 1%, the market dynamic will probably change.
- WorldMaker 4y ago
  Regarding your edit: Apple has already shown some power here in negotiation between the big card networks. Apple Card has been on MasterCard since it began, but Apple Cash has "quietly" switched networks presumably as Apple has negotiated lower rates. Apple Cash being a "debit card" is even more affected by the network overheads than credit cards. (Cash was on Discover's Debit network for a bunch of years but is currently on Visa's Debit network. I don't think it has yet been on MasterCard's, despite the Apple Card being home on MasterCard.) I don't know if Apple alone can fix some of our card transaction overhead, but it is interesting to note that they don't appear to be a passive player either.
- cuteboy19 4y ago
  >Wallets are here to stay Why so? UPI obsoleted all the private wallet apps in India. Won't FedNow do the same for the US?
__derek__ 4y ago
Some fun history: GE Capital sold its internet banking arm to Goldman Sachs, which became GS Bank as the start of Goldman's move into retail banking (later rebranded as Marcus after expanding beyond HYSAs and CDs), so there's a chance that some of the infrastructure from GE Capital will help run Apple's new savings product.
concinds 4y ago
And they're not just moving into finance, either. "As I wrote in August, Apple is exploring bringing ads to TV+, Apple Books and its other storefronts. But up first, next year, is advertising coming to Apple Maps", is what Mark Gurman said just yesterday. https://twitter.com/markgurman/status/1580259089611124736 https://twitter.com/markgurman/status/1580259089611124736

kshacker 4y ago

I am not sure it is a correct comparison. Wallets are here to stay so if you are anyways investing in wallets and payments, how much more work is banking? Especially if it is being done by someone else (Goldman Sachs)and if Apple is looking at only technical aspects of the platform. Edit: sometimes you can get only so much (very little) insight into a business unless you run it, at least a small version of it. I have no opinion on them running a savings bank but it will be really interesting if they ever brought something challenging visa and Mastercard. Not sure if that will ever happen it will be interesting to speculate what if because that market adds on quite a bit to so many small businesses operational cost. You buy from Costco, sell at store, basically finance has added 6% cost there (recoverable with rewards but not for everyone) and if someone can reduce it to 1%, the market dynamic will probably change.

WorldMaker 4y ago
Regarding your edit: Apple has already shown some power here in negotiation between the big card networks. Apple Card has been on MasterCard since it began, but Apple Cash has "quietly" switched networks presumably as Apple has negotiated lower rates. Apple Cash being a "debit card" is even more affected by the network overheads than credit cards. (Cash was on Discover's Debit network for a bunch of years but is currently on Visa's Debit network. I don't think it has yet been on MasterCard's, despite the Apple Card being home on MasterCard.) I don't know if Apple alone can fix some of our card transaction overhead, but it is interesting to note that they don't appear to be a passive player either.
cuteboy19 4y ago
>Wallets are here to stay Why so? UPI obsoleted all the private wallet apps in India. Won't FedNow do the same for the US?

__derek__ 4y ago

Some fun history: GE Capital sold its internet banking arm to Goldman Sachs, which became GS Bank as the start of Goldman's move into retail banking (later rebranded as Marcus after expanding beyond HYSAs and CDs), so there's a chance that some of the infrastructure from GE Capital will help run Apple's new savings product.

concinds 4y ago

And they're not just moving into finance, either. "As I wrote in August, Apple is exploring bringing ads to TV+, Apple Books and its other storefronts. But up first, next year, is advertising coming to Apple Maps", is what Mark Gurman said just yesterday. https://twitter.com/markgurman/status/1580259089611124736 https://twitter.com/markgurman/status/1580259089611124736